Road, film review: Film-makers do an excellent job of conveying reckless thrill of racing

(PG) Diarmuid Lavery, Michael Hewitt, 102 mins

'Road' is about the champion motorcyclists Joey and Robert Dunlop

There are occasions during Road in which viewers may feel they are intruding on private grief.

The film is about the champion motorcyclists Joey and Robert Dunlop. "It's a cruel sport," one interviewee remarks with massive understatement. The Dunlops, from a small village in Northern Ireland, were legendary figures in a motorcycling world in which death is still commonplace.

The film-makers do an excellent job of conveying the sheer reckless thrill of racing round the Isle of Man TT course or the North West 200 at breakneck speed. Liam Neeson's voice-over has a Grim Reaper-like quality as he describes the mounting accidents and fatalities.

What the doc can't really convey is the mindset of riders whose urge to race often verges on the suicidal. The use of music to underpin interviews with bereaved relatives can't help but seem manipulative.